Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Flying Llama

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2004
737
0
Los Angeles
earthcrossroads.com

I'm working for a guy who made "Marriage Bill of Rights" and wanted me to make a website so he could sell his product.

It's my first experiment in the creation of a 'real' website. The current domain name has nothing to do with the site, but that's ok for now.

What do you guys think of it? I'm completely open to all constructive criticism, feel free to give any impressions.
 

splashtech

macrumors regular
Oct 25, 2007
151
0
Your shopping cart is buggy/broken. On soe pages, it is convinced there is one $7.50 item in the cart, which there isnt. When I go to view cart, or checkout, it disappears.

Fix that before deploying. People wont trust a site where they cannot predict what they are going to be buying/paying for. I wouldnt.

Design-wise, it seems nice enough. VERY VERY slow, but you gave the impression it is not finished yet. As long as it goes a sensible speed when it is, ignore this statement.
 

timmillwood

macrumors 6502a
Apr 7, 2006
955
1
it looks like drupal, is it?

What shopping cart module is it?

What other modules are you using?

How long did it take?
 

heehee

macrumors 68020
Jul 31, 2006
2,469
233
Same country as Santa Claus
I think it's kinda plain, but it's much better than the old version. In your picture gallery, I would suggest you take off the rollover effect, or alteast have the picture stay if I move my cursor away. For the "Click Here to try our beautiful new gallery!", you should have it open to a new window, that way, the user is still in your "site" rather than somewhere else where they can't go back without using the back button. Also, I dont see the point in having who's online. It doesn't really tell me much rather there are 1,000 or 2 people online.
 

splashtech

macrumors regular
Oct 25, 2007
151
0
... you should have it open to a new window, that way, the user is still in your "site" rather than somewhere else where they can't go back without using the back button...

NO NO NO. Do NOT do this. This is very "late 90's" thinking, and can decrease usability and coherance during the browsing experience. The browser has the ability to open in a new window/new tab, and the user will use that feature if he/she wants. Do not force this behaviour on them without asking their permission.
 

heehee

macrumors 68020
Jul 31, 2006
2,469
233
Same country as Santa Claus
NO NO NO. Do NOT do this. This is very "late 90's" thinking, and can decrease usability and coherance during the browsing experience. The browser has the ability to open in a new window/new tab, and the user will use that feature if he/she wants. Do not force this behaviour on them without asking their permission.

So it's better to have them to go another page without any buttons at all? :confused:

Yes, I understand the ability for new window or tabs from the user, but most people who are on the internet do not know what the hell they are doing. If someone who is clueless clicks on an image and it gives them the image and nothing else, they will close the window. I see this all the time even on porsche and ferrari sites opening to a different window.

Are you saying this is the 2008 thinking?
 

Attachments

  • Picture-2.jpg
    Picture-2.jpg
    91.6 KB · Views: 74

snickelfritz

macrumors 65816
Oct 24, 2003
1,109
0
Tucson AZ
The layout is nicely organized.
The site performance needs work though; it loads relatively slowly on broadband.
Not sure if this the site itself, the server on which it is hosted, or routing issues.
A Flash site of this size would preload in under 2 seconds on virtually any client connection, after which, all page transitions would be instantaneous.

I'm not sure I understand the need for 3 separate pages for a single product.
The gallery and product info pages are not necessary; just display the images with the product description on the home page.

I think I would replace the email address link with a basic response form.

This site design would be much more compelling if the page transitions and links were more interactive. (ie: Flash, AJAX, "web 2.0", etc...)
As it is, the site design is too basic to be accepted by modern consumers as "legitimate" e-commerce.

GL
 

timmillwood

macrumors 6502a
Apr 7, 2006
955
1
I think you should enable the Clean URLs module, looks better than having "?q=node/1" etc in the url on every page.
 

Flying Llama

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2004
737
0
Los Angeles
Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback!

I'll work on the things you have all suggested, and I'll post another comment when it's done so you can see the results. Thanks again.

-remove "who's online now" ----DONE
-add basic response form in addition to email address link ----DONE
-install clean url module ----DONE
-remove image links to jpegs images ----DONE
-fix quirky rollover css gallery ----DONE (new gallery! check it out and give some feedback)
-decide whether coverflow gallery opens in a new window or not ----DONE (it won't, i put a "return" link to compensate)

to do:
-consolidate gallery/more info page?
-fix shopping cart bug displaying invisible item
-work on site performance
 

Flying Llama

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2004
737
0
Los Angeles
it looks like drupal, is it?

What shopping cart module is it?

What other modules are you using?

How long did it take?

Ya it's drupal with the Ubercart shopping cart module installed.
i installed other modules like google analytics, administration menu and usps table-based shipping quotes.
it took about a week of casual work. :eek:
 

EarthDawn

macrumors 6502a
Feb 18, 2008
883
10
Long-eye Land, NY
1 thing I dont like is the google ads running down the whole left side..... kind of tacky to me.

otherwise while its plain it is neat and easy to view and fast loading... all important factors for a successful site

good luck
 

Flying Llama

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2004
737
0
Los Angeles
I guess I'm not surprised at the negative feedback with all of these ads. The guy I'm working with insisted on putting text ads because "It looks more legitimate". :rolleyes:
I'll talk to him about removing them.

You guys have helped a lot, thank you Macrumors Forums, this community is awesome.

Is there anything else, at all that could help in selling this product? It hasn't been selling very well yet... and I'm going to get a percentage everytime one of these is sold, so any strategies for getting this product around would mean a lot. :)
Thanks again.
 

timmillwood

macrumors 6502a
Apr 7, 2006
955
1
I ran across your site the other day from ubercart.org - funny running into this thread today.

I'm still waiting on the edge - build now in drupal 5 or learn 6 and wait for ubercart/other modules to catch up.

All the new sites I am working on are in 6. I think that the more people start using 6 the more it will push the modules in 6.

If no one uses 6 then why convert the modules.

Try and put your weight behind the module updates on drupal.org
 

InLikeALion

macrumors 6502a
All the new sites I am working on are in 6. I think that the more people start using 6 the more it will push the modules in 6.

If no one uses 6 then why convert the modules.

Try and put your weight behind the module updates on drupal.org

Sweet, I like that advice. I'm always wanting to move forward and only invest in learning what will become standard, vs what is on the way out. But I also see that as a potential weakness if the best solution for a problem is something that is dated, so with Drupal I was trying to not be impatient.

I realize that this is a little off topic, but I've seen several drupal related posts of your, timmillwood, and hearing that you are doing exclusive 6 development, I was wondering if you could post about the scope of these sites, ie what functionality they will have/what modules you will be using?
 

Saliwa

macrumors member
Apr 7, 2008
65
0
Your site is slow. And are you sure you have the right to reuse the American seal?
 

Santa Rosa

macrumors 65816
Aug 22, 2007
1,051
0
Indiana
I get this on the main page after the intro:

recoverable fatal error: Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string in /home/a4171157/public_html/sites/all/modules/ubercart/uc_product/uc_product.module on line 224.
recoverable fatal error: Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string in /home/a4171157/public_html/sites/all/modules/ubercart/uc_product/uc_product.module on line 224.
 

jamesarm97

macrumors 65816
Sep 29, 2006
1,090
116
Too slow for me to even look at. Skipped the intro, then gave up on looking at the site.
 

Flying Llama

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2004
737
0
Los Angeles
Ok, the errors have been fixed. I updated my Ubercart installation to 1.0 RC2.

As for site performance, it's really at a suprise to hear users talking about slow site speed. I have tested this site from other computers, and it seems to load normally. I have even had others tell me it loads rather quickly.

Maybe it had to do with the old, temporary, now-fixed errors. Could you check again and see if the site continues to perform poorly?


Maybe I'll have to switch hosts. I am currently with 000webhost.com.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.